Feel The Edge

Welcome to my blog!

2007-10-31T21:45:00.000Z

Hello, my name is Adil and I have been slowly losing my eyesight from the age of 14. I am now 25 and near blind. In April 2007, I performed a helidrop which involved me snowboarding down the Trient Glacier in Switzerland. To read more on the day I descended down the glacier you can read the post The Big Day.

Alternatively you can watch a short video.
of the day I snowboarded down the glacier.

The rest of this site will give you insight into my learning how to snowboard and in general, the ramblings of a blind snowboarder.

Why did I do it?

A simple message that can be taken from my challenge is that if a blind person can be guided through deadly crevices on a glacier, then what ever challenge or problems (crevices) you have in your life, there is a strong possibility you can overcome them. At times, this may require some guidance and help from people around you; however never be scared in living up to the challenge.

There is a charitable aspect to my snowboarding also, it is to bring light to the great challenge ahead for the child survivors of the Asian earthquake of 2005. These children survived the earthquake but lost their families and communities. Its important that these children don't lose hope. The children need to live up to the challenge facing them and they can do this through our help. this site has commited to helping 300 of the children by providing them with Action Aid's Child Friendly Schools. To equip one building into a school cost £1,400 and the hope is to have 10 schools at a total cost of £14,000. more information can be obtained by visiting the post:
Charity Update
Please reward my snowboarding efforts by supporting the children!

If you only have 30 seconds to make a donation:

text the word:

SNOWBLIND

to the number:

85222
by doing this you will have made a one-off donation of £1.50, you will be charged a one-off charge of £1.50 pluss any standard network charges you usually pay for sending a text.

(text service powered by Incentivated

To make an online donation please visit www.justgiving.com/nextgeneration

Making an online donation takes less than 5 minutes.

Thanks to everyone who send comments and messages of support. They are greatly appreciated. Please continue sending your comments and questions to
twistedkilt@hotmail.com.

Gallery from the big day

2007-05-02T18:58:00.000+01:00

Photos by Keith McIntosh and Neil McNab

To watch the video Click here

The Big Day!

2007-04-29T14:10:00.000+01:00

Feeling relieved and extremely happy as I’m in one piece! The heli-drop was very successful, not to mention enjoyable. The day started with an 8 a.m. pickup in Keith’s car. We drove over the boarder from France into Switzerland and parked in a lay-by as we got our kit together and waited for the helicopter to pick us up. There were 5 of us in total, Myself, Keith McIntosh, Neil McNab, James Vernon, and Georgia Merton. James and Georgia were going to be filming the event. Neil was the High Mountain Guide and Keith was my guide! We had to sit crouched as the heli dropped down. It was very noisy and I was extremely nervous. It was as if the sound of the helicopter just made me realise what I was about to do. Because of the noise all my other senses were blinded. I had to rely on someone guiding me to the first step of the heli, ensuring our heads were down to keep safe from the propellers. I climbed in first and got comfortable for a 10 minute flight which flew us over a breathtaking mountainous terrain and at one point our pilot even flew us through a massive crevice. It was an amazing ride and Georgia sitting next to me described the journey to me so that I never missed a bit. The little sight I have remaining allowed me to see the darkness of the mountain walls as we flew near to them. We were dropped off on the Trient glacier.

We left our kit and walked up a little bank to a vantage point from where many peeks were visible. Neil described to me from this point the route we would be taking.
It was like being in another world, so quiet and surreal.

Keith and I did a little sound check to ensure our walky-talkys were working. The Starcom1 walky-talky system meant that Keith could have a wire down his arm with a button he could press to talk into a wind-proof mic attached to his goggles. I had a set of headphones attached to the inside of my helmet so I could hear Keith very clear at even high speeds.

We began the descent. The snow was quite crunchy and really bumpy to begin with and this meant I really had to keep my legs really relaxed and springy. I had a fall in the first minute or so, as I got use to the terrain. It was smooth sailing after that. We hit the flat section and this is where the hard work started. We had to hike! We took off our boards and attached them to our bags. We then put on some snow shoes which would give us more surface area and reduce the chance of poking through the glacier. We also had to attach ourselves to a rope and walk behind one another. We had to keep enough distance between ourselves to have some tension for the rope. If one of us was to unfortunately fall into a crevice, having the rest of us on the rope would stop the person from falling far as the rest of us would be effectively the deadweight on the rope!

We arrived at a section which had a big crevice and had a bridge of snow over it. We had to ensure that the snow was safe to hold our weight. Fortunately, all of us were in perfect shape not one inch of excess fat on us (haha). I got a little worried at this point. James, our cameraman, went over it first. James made it safely, so we slowly began the walk over the snow. I was very careful to ensure that I followed the exact line of the rope I was attached to and that I didn’t venture too much to either side. We all made it safely. We continued the hike for another 15 minutes. At the end of it, we were totally exhausted.

We clipped into our boards and began the second descent. However, after I made my first turn I couldn’t hear Keith in my ear anymore. ‘Oh dear’ I thought, that wasn’t good news. I called out to him, thinking something had happened to him. I heard his voice in the distance. He was still alive, however the batteries on his walky-talky were not! Thankfully I had spares and we were on the road, or should I say glacier, before long.

The weather had been perfect up to now. However, it was beginning to get cloudy and the weather forecast for the late afternoon had been bad.
There was the possibility that if the weather were too bad, the Heli wouldn’t come and we would either have to spend the night on the glacier in a small hut or attempt to walk down. However, due to the snow melting away lower down the mountain, this would have been a long walk and probably not the safest.

The cloud held back the poor weather a little longer. We got to another flat section and removed our boards. We began the final 30 minute hike to the spot where the heli was to meet us. On hearing the Helicopter we got our stuff close together and sat on the ground in a huddle.

The helicopter Landed a few meters away. Once again, it blinded all my senses. However, it wasn’t able to blind the feeling of the amazing relief on surviving one of the toughest challenges I had done in my life and demonstrating we can push the limits when it comes towards ourselves. With that thought, I climbed into the helicopter with the rest of the team.

I’ll place some of the pictures and a video clip from the descent on this site over the next day or so.

I still can’t believe it’s over. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without the support of countless people. People who I trained with, my sponsors who covered most of my costs to ensure that every penny that people donated would go towards the charity, my family as I haven’t being seeing them much and all the people who have been reading my blog and sending kind emails and making donations towards the charity. I’m not going to provide am exhaustive list here as you would be exhausted reading it!

My descent down the glacier is over. I guess however the challenge has just begun for the children who survived the Asian earthquake of 2005 to begin building their lives. Your donations will help them as per every £1,400 we raise will equip one school assisting 30 children to receive an education and trauma support. So please don’t stop your donation from coming in if you haven’t donated already: www.justgiving.com/nextgeneration

Warm Regards

Adi

Final Count Down

2007-04-26T16:13:00.000+01:00

The heli drop has been scheduled for this coming Saturday, 28th April. However, this could change depending on the weather, and if I change my mind and go home to my mum :)

It’s Wednesday night and I have just arrived in Chamonix. It’s midnight, and I'm sitting in my dorm in the Chalet ski Station.

The next two days before the drop will be for Keith McIntosh and I to have some intimate time on the snow together to ensure that we have good communication between one another. It’s important for Keith to communicate with me the type of snow coming up, in addition to the steepness and the width of the section of the mountain in the least amount of words possible. He also has to give directions to navigate me away from dangers on the mountain. The communication with Keith will be my eyes on the mountain.

The Bucket!

2007-04-22T21:46:00.000+01:00

Thursday 19th April

Did a dreaded street collection on Fulham Broadway. We started about 5:30 and were out there till 9. There was such diversity in people on the street. Some of them were not interested and others were so interested that they requested photos next to us

I’m not sure why, though. Haven’t they ever seen a blind guy with a white stick standing on a snowboard on the pavement with balloons and a bucket in his hands?

One of the best was a lady who tried to sound really interested, but was only concerned with wanting to take one of our helium-filled red balloons for her wee one.

Rob Drake was amazing at pulling people towards me begging them for pennies. He was scarily good at that. Not sure if he had been between jobs for a while☺

Bilal was amazing at enticing people my way with the majority of them being outstandingly pretty girls. I’m sure he appreciated his legitimacy in being able to talk to random strangers on the street.

Elizna was absolutely dedicated to the cause by building rapport and selling the project to the people she met. Rob H. ensured that the people who were having a nice, peaceful dinner at the street side cafes would have to eat their food while looking at a flyer of me, which he would then deposit on their tables.

Jun was the most smartly dressed in his suit straight from work and enticed people with his Japanese charm. Megan was a star at organising the event and talked Borders into allowing us to tape some posters to the outside of their window during our street collection! Georgia was the official camera woman on the day and caught us all picking our nose and rolling our eyes.

Afterwards, we went for a round of free drinks, courtesy of TGI Friday in Fulham and another free round courtesy of David Lloyd.

Knuckles up to all the shops in Fulham Broadway who allowed us to drop flyers.
Borders bookshop was awesome as they allowed us to park a table outside their window looking onto Fulham Road.

Thanks to Mo from David Lloyd health club in Fulham Broadway for providing the table and for charming Clintons into filling up our balloons!

Friday the 13th - How Lucky

2007-04-22T20:28:00.000+01:00

Friday, April 13

Lucky for me, my plane was delayed by 15 minutes which gave me time to check-in. I bought a drink for the flight attendant; which I promised to myself I would do if I made the easyJet flight.

As usual, the flight was a joy and the helpful staff members gave me a personal one-to-one with their safety equipment.

I was heading to France again, this time accompanied by Bilal, who is a cool South Affrican lad I met in London. Also along was his friend, Jun, who is the funniest Japanese lad I have ever met.

On the plane, Jun taught Bilal and I a few phrases in Japanese such as ‘how are you’ ‘thank you’ and a few others which are probably not appropriate to mention here.
The next day, Saturday morning, Jun was dressed sooner than Bilal and I, and was attempting to say ‘I am ready’. However, within his excitement and lovely Japanese accent, he proclaimed what sounded like ‘I am Lady’. We obviously never let him forget that phrase throughout our time there and at home☺

Jun was my guide for the first couple of runs when we got on the slope, as Bilal was still learning how to snowboard. It was interesting when I insisted Jun give me directions in Japanese. When he began to shout out directions in English, I would pretend to not hear him.

After Bilal got up to speed with his snowboarding (remarkably within a couple of hours of being on the slope) all three of us went cruising on Le Toure. It was the quietest I’ve ever experienced. We actually didn’t use the walky-talkies and I resorted to a combination of listening to Bilal’s board in front of me and Bilal shouting out my name. I would know to stop when I couldn’t hear his board any more, as that would be the point when he would have face-planted (fallen). He didn’t fall enough for my liking for a beginner.

Saturday afternoon on the slope, we met two lovely girls, Alisha and Esther, both of them teaching English in France. Esther was an Ausy on skis for the first time and she was brave enough to come up the chair lift with Jun and I. She was quite nervous; however, she persevered and the next day it was hard to get her off the slope as she was loving it. Alisha was an unforgettable Canadian skier. She enjoyed the snow and was the only person I’ve ever seen who can laugh after falling and sliding down the mountain for 20 meters!

Thanks go out to the lovely lady at Chalet Ski Station in Chamonix who donated the money I paid for my stay to the charity.

Knuckles up to Tom Wilson at Zeroº were great for providing Bilal a nice discount off his snowboard rental and gave me some love in the form of wrist guards at cost price.

My Ears are My Eyes on the Slope

2007-04-22T20:22:00.000+01:00

Wednesday, 11th April

Imagine you are driving, and you are picking up some speed and you know there is a corner coming up…then suddenly, someone places a French newspaper in front of your eyes and you are forced to read its contents while your car is dangerously heading towards the corner! A similar thing happens to me on the slope. The car is my snowboard, the corner is a cliff and the French newspaper is a French girl’s voice. She has gotten onto the same walky-talky channel and has interrupted my guide’s instructions.

As my ears are my eyes on the slope, it is vital that I can constantly listen to my guide. So far, I’ve been using some basic Motorala walky-talkies which have a wire with a mic and earpiece attached. The problem with this set up is that the walky-talkies don’t have enough channels, so it is easy for the French girl to get on the same channel. Also the mic is not really wind proof, so when we are going fast, it is really difficult to hear my guide. After some investigation and some advice from Kev Alderton (fastest blind skier in the world) I have a better setup now. The equipment has been provided by Starcom1 http://www.starcom1.com and consists of a powerful Kenwood walky-talky which my guide and I keep tucked away in our pockets. The new Kenwood walky-talkys, Kenwood UBZ-LJ8, are clearer and have more channels, which results in less of the French girl! Connected to this walky-talky are two cables. One of them leads to an earpiece with a wind-proof microphone. The other cable leads to an activation switch which can be attached to our thumbs so we can press the button with our gloves over top. This is better then before, where my guide would have to hold the walky-talky (in the cold) and try to press the button with a gloved-hand. This wasn’t the easiest task, as it would require the dexterity levels of a bird’s claw!

On the Board with Blair

2007-04-21T14:54:00.000+01:00

06 April 2007

I arrived in France on Friday night for a quick weekend on the snow with Chris Blair, my friend from Oxford. I mean to say my friend who studied at Oxford, not implying in any way that that I went to Oxford. Chris doesn’t like it when I tell people he went to Oxford, so I won't. Personally, I was over qualified and had to attend the Strathclyde University Business School instead.☺

We hadn’t seen each other for a while, so I must admit we savoured the cafés and street-side stalls more than we actually spent time on the snow. However, when we did make it on the snow, it was quite rewarding. My snowboarding skills are picking up quite well. Chris was very good at providing essential information such as the steepness of the slope, the width of the slope, and most interestingly, if there were any ‘baskets’ near by. A ‘basket’ is someone who is all over the place (someone I have to be really careful around).

The link below will take you to a clip of Chris giving me directions. Click on the link, and you will be 100 feet above me and looking through Chris's camera as he talks into his walky-talky. Essentially, what you will hear is the same as I hear when I am coming down the slope, which acts as my eyes.

http://video.google.co.uk/
videoplay?docid=1990960984574865415&hl=en-GB

One of our favourite hangouts in Chamonix was a street-side stall which made fresh waffles with a toffee centre. Chris spotted this place whilst sitting in a café, which quite disappointedly had to stop serving food around 11:00 a.m. This was quite a common feature. Sometimes we would be too early for food, and other times we would be too late.

Although we had no major incidents on the slope, we did get my phantom French girl on the walky-talkies who would every so often disturb the directions I would get from Chris. 'Phantom French girl' refers to someone else using the same walky-talky channel as us, which results in Chris cutting out and the random person in my ear. In all cases, in all of my trips to France, the random person has been a French girl!

A Hard Day's Riding

2007-03-04T22:10:00.000Z

16/02: Les Houches:
Caught the last Easyjet flight on Friday evening from Gatwick. Flying out with Grant Gallacher to have a full days of riding in Less Houches in Chamonix. I’m always impressed with the service I get with Easyjet. However this time round I had a little disagreement with the lady at check-in. She was insisting on informing me on what kind of assistance I required. I had informed that I only needed help up to the security desk as I would meet Grant on the other side, she insisted on getting me assistance up to the plane, and more annoyingly so, she insisted I wait for an hour before the assistance is provided as the flight was delayed. Eventually a much more flexible Easyjet member of staff understood the situation and walked with me to security. On arriving to security I realized I had Nigel in my pocket (Nigel is my tool which I use to adjust the bindings on my board) I declared it and quickly ran with my new found Easyjet friend to where I had left my snowboard, unfortunately it was to late and my snowboard had already been sent on the plane. Having only my laptop bag on my back I decided to put Nigel in my laptop bag and check the bag in. However not having the heart to put my poor delicate laptop through check-in, I decided to take it out of the bag and carry it through security!

Easyjet air stewards are always extremely helpful on the plane, to the extent that Grant thought the male steward had a crush on me when he asked Grant to step a side while he (the male steward) sat next to me and helped me remove my jacket, and then began to take me through the safety procedures.

17/02: Les Houches:
Went to sleep quite late and awoke to the ringing of my phone. Oh dear… it would be Keith and Grant and I had slept in. I answered, trying to sound as awake as one could with 5 hours sleep. I got ready in record time grabbed my board (forgot my gloves) and ran to the door only to stand there for about 5 minutes struggling to open it as the key didn’t work too well from the inside.

17/02: 9:30 am: Showing a bit of leg
Grant and I began climbing the 2 set of stairs which would take us up to the first chairlift. We went as high up the mountain as the 3 chairlifts would take us. It was the first time Grant had been with me outside the indoor slope in Milton Keynes. It was quite momentous. The first couple of runs were quite nice. I was wearing the bright yellow bib I had got made recently. It says on it ‘blind rider’. I had a similar bib in the just as fashionable bright orange for Grant saying ‘rider’s guide’. Grant for some strange reason preferred his Scottish Instructors jacket over the bright orange bib so didn’t wear it. However, if Grant was trying to not attract attention he failed dramatically. As half way down our first run he realized that the zip which goes down his leg burst open revealing his sexy leg to the unprotected eyes of the bystanders! However to give him credit I think he got the situation under control fast.

17/02: 7pm: Hotel Room, Les Houches

Just had an amazing sleep but have slept through my dinner date with Grant and Keith. I feel so refreshed, body is still feeling quite harassed but now the need for some food is high. I’m sitting in a nice cosy room at the back of a building site as this hotel is slowly being converted into apartments.

Its dark and I suffer from night blindness which means that I would be totally useless in finding any food. I made a cup of coffee, had some chocolate and sent Keith a text informing him I was going back into hibernation. I decided not to ride on the Sunday as my body was still recovering and I grabbed an early flight back to good old London town.

Festive Fun!

2007-03-04T22:08:00.000Z

’Tis the Eve before Christmas...

24/12/2006 : 2am London :
Haven't still finished packing. Spent most of the day travelling round the UK trying to pick up a set of Motorola walkie-talkies, eventually picked them up at Ellis Brigham in Tamworth (who kindly provided them for free together with some base layers.)

My snowboard is sitting on the bed looking irresistible.

It is a pure white Icon Wallpaper edition, with the board make stencilled in an overlapping fashion across the middle between the bindings and rapping around the bottom of the board.
However there is a big scratch on the top surface which I’m sure was my cleaner bashing the vacuum into it. There are some little knocks round the edges which I have a suspicion are the war wounds of carrying it through the London underground!

My snowboard bag is full. I have crammed everything down to my aftershave in there due to the new hand luggage restrictions at the UK airports. Any ideas on where I could put the snowboard?

7am London:
I think I must have fallen asleep about 3am after packing my bags and while listening back to the advice which Keith was giving me on the recording I had of him. Then something vibrated, just in time for me to wake up and not miss my flight! There was another vibration: my phone was ringing. It was my housemate wanting in. He was apologetic for waking me totally oblivious of the fact he had potentially saved me from missing a flight.

I grabbed a taxi to pick me up. You would imagine that after prancing around the UK yesterday to find the walkie-talkies that I wouldn't leave them all nicely charged on my bed! Flight or no flight I went back for them

Christmas in Argentiere

25/12/07: Argentiere:

Just got back from my first day on the slope. Ben (A friend I made in the Belvadere bunk house) came up with me. We struggled at the beginning a little as Ben, as a skier would be facing down the slope at all times however when on a snowboard if I was to be on my toe-side I would be facing up the hill so we really had to think about our lefts and rights!

I crashed into a number of Piste marker poles with one of them lodging itself under my board resulting in me riding over it as if I meant to perform a fancy trick! The culmination of that run was my board and me attached to it heading quite fast toward a go slow sign and stopping inches from it.

Ben’s friend Neil accompanied us and Neil’s ski poles came in handy on the flat sections of the slope as he would pull me till I had enough momentum. When snowboarding its crucial to have enough speed when approaching a flat section to ensure you don’t stop. If you stop it is hard to get going as unlike skiing, you are attached to the one platform so you can’t independently push out using your legs.
If there is no kind hearted skier around you usually have to take out one foot and use it to push off, similar to what you would do while skateboarding.

26/12/06 Argentere:
Sitting on my top bunk at the belvedere about to head for a sauna down stairs. Every single part in my body is aching. I hit some more piste markers today. Stopped in time to prevent a collision with a skier. I was quite excited as it gave me a chance to try out my newly acquire phrase informing them that I couldn’t see in French. He turned out to be German and didn’t understand a word I said and asked if I spoke English!

27/12/2006 Argentere:
Went for 1 run in the morning and now I feel pain all over. It was long, steep and icy! Basically it was as if all the ice rinks in London had been joined together and then tilted up at a slant. Falling on ice can be quite terrifying for most average boarders, in my case it’s slightly more so as I am not able to see where the next patch of snow is which will break my fall and bring my sliding to an end.

28/12/06 Argentere:
Didn’t do anything in the morning as Ben was Ice climbing. It gave me a chance to write out some emails which I had to send. The afternoon came and we decided that the ice conditions would warrant the purchasing of a helmet. Was fortunate the expensive French branded one didn’t fit so purchased a slightly cheaper but equally as good if not more better fit K2 version.

Caught some Air from the Chair:
Was waiting at the bottom of one of the runs for the 2 man chair lift which would take us up the mountain. I stood at the bottom with Ben. We were reasonably well positioned however the chair collided with the back of my rucksack throwing me off balance resulting in me half on half off. The longer I stayed in this position the higher the chairlift was going.
I took the decision to jump woohooing on my way down as I landed on the slope below. Thankfully it was not high with about a 2 meter fall.
Ben asked me later on if I knew how high it was before I jumped, I answered in the negative. At times you have to take the risk and go with instinct. I knew if I had jumped later it would have been higher so I cut my losses!

Riding with Ben was great. He looked out for me all the time in the slope. The incident on the chair was not avoidable. It was the first time I was taking a rucksack with me and next time I will be more prepared for the chair approaching.

I think the best point on the slope was when I was really tired as I had not been performing that well on the ice and instead of things getting better the slope got a lot worse as we were going to have to navigate through some rocks. Ben kept calm and had total confidence in me and guided me through with great skill. I felt amazing at the bottom because we had made it down in one piece!

We soon realized that I was performing better during the times Ben would continuously talk over the walky talky. Previously I had asked him to provide directions, so when to turn for example. However providing ongoing information such as:
slope direction (that is which direction is the piste marked)
camber (the slant of the slope, for example, the direction of the slope may be straight in front however the slope may be silted so that the left hand side is higher than the right hand side) that is, the slope may be marked
width of the slope
Condition of the slope (ice, rocky, grass/ mud!)
people traffic

These were all really useful bits of information and made me feel safer and more confident in my riding.

Later on that day I had dinner with Keith McIntosh and Neil McNab. Over dinner we discussed possible routes of the helidrop and possible dates. Neil offered to take me out the next morning for a run just to see how I was getting along.

30/12/06 Les Houches:
Neil came and picked me up in the morning. We drove for about 30 minutes coming nearer to where he stayed and to where we would be riding for the day. After a couple of runs on slopes which were not far off horizontal I convinced Neil to take me on the types of runs I had been accustomed to. Riding with Neil was good as it really helped to tie up areas in my technique which had been taught to me by Keith (in France) Daniel Lloyd and Grant Gallacher (in the UK).

Neil speaks about that day in an article in Whitelines (a snowboarding mag) we made it into.

I stayed at Neil’s house that day and had some amazing food cooked by Neil’s wife Ruth. I also made a new friend, Manon, who was a very pretty and intelligent girl. She drew a lovely picture of a snail and then asked me to draw a picture of a sun above the snail, I was terrified as I hadn’t ever drawn anything since I started losing my sight. However she was very generous and accepted my addition of a sun in her drawing! We watched Toy Story together and I gave her a crash course on how a blind person uses a white stick to learn of dangers such as steps and curbs, she was fascinated. Manon was Neil’s 2 year old daughter!

The Snowboard asylum Helps me out

2006-11-28T15:37:00.000Z

When snowboarding first came on the scene, refined personalities and some of the more genteel skiers may have had the opinion that it was a sport consisting of badly dressed adrenalin junkies partaking in high risk ventures resulting in hold ups on the slope and every so often the descending of a stretcher carrying the unlucky risk taker.

Increased research into the sport and the diversity of clientele ranging from Management Consultants to Ministers has slowly shaped a new image of snowboarding. The primitive, just escaped from an asylum, snowboarding days are in the past. It’s a sport you can take at
your own pace combining the flowing movements of surfing; maintaining the raw creativity of skateboarding and adopting the mountain craft of the skier. Maybe it was the original link between snowboarders, asylums and the relentless uptake of snowboarding which
lead to the birth of the snowboard asylum (TSA).

TSA is found all around the UK and is the place if you want to buy serious kit for the slopes whether that’s skis snowboards or any item what so ever mildly related.

I was fortunate enough to be introduced to the general manager for the UK at the ski show London who agreed to kit me out. I told him about the project and mentioned that I was looking for a snowboard as I was struggling with the rental boards as they were preventing me from really getting a closeness to the snow, that is, preventing me from experiencing the snow conditions under my board. A new board would enable me to have a better feel for the bumps, dips, ice patches and powder sections on the slope —though my friends tell me that I already feel the snow too much as 90% of the time I am lying with my face in it(

My gear kindly sponsored by TSA included:
Icon board (Wall paper addition)
Vans snowboard boots which you tighten by twisting a dial on the front of the boot which in turn pulls on titanium wires.

Snowboarding socks as my Top Man’s plain blacks weren’t up for the challenge.

Best of all I was given a little tool which I named Nigel. It basically has 4 different screwdriver heads on it together with a spanner. This was to help me adjust my bindings which are attached to the board and in which I place my boots.

TRAINING UP-DATES

2006-10-27T18:10:00.000+01:00

BOARD BALLET

This post refers to the system through which Grant taught me to get rhythm in my turns. The goal of our session was for me to turn myself without his prompts, so basically going from left to right to left (without obviously hitting the pillars on the right when I go right and without hitting the wall on the left when I go left) At first grant told me to count after each turn.. So we would go left and then I would start counting 1 2 3 4 and then I would turn right and count 1 2 3 4. After a few runs we hit a high of elegance I hadn’t experienced up to yet, Grant who at all times been riding behind me, comes by my side, and starts humming dad a dad a da…dum dum…dum dum… dad a dad a da… dum dum… dum dum. He was urging me to ride by his side. On the Da Da's we would ride to the right and on the dum dum's we would ride to the left. I’m sure we broke numerous snowboarding fashion norms. My sincere apologies to all :-)

Talk to my friend as the blind man ain't listening...

2006-10-27T17:16:00.000+01:00

An interesting phenomena most blind people face and indeed most people with an obvious disability face, is people refusing to speak directly to them and opting instead to speak to who ever is accompanying them. After a few cool looking runs on my first day with Grant we were approached by a snowboarder.
Random snowboarder:“So is he blind?”
Grant:“Yes he is”
Random Snowboarder:“So how long has HE been riding for?”
Grant:“Why don’t you ask HIM?”
Random Snowboarder:“How long you been riding for?”
Me:“I started this year and have had about 20 days on the snow in total”
Random snowboarder:“How’s he finding it?”
Grant:“Dude just ask him”
p.s. really loved Random Snowboarder it was very nice of him to approach us and we really like it when people do.
p.p.s. maybe it was nothing to do with my eyesight but my sheer muscle and pure good looks that scared him from asking me directly!

New Instructor for the UK

2006-10-27T17:15:00.000+01:00

Eventually getting back on the indoor slope I had a new instructor as Daniel Lloyd finished up with me for the moment as he has recently become a Daddy to a lovely baby boy. I got a Scottish lad called Grant Gallacher. He is at the same instructing calibre As Keith McIntosh and has ridden with him in France. He narrated a little story of him and Keith riding back country. On approaching a small cliff he seen Keith in the most calmest of fashion perform a beautifully executed back flip off the cliff (and I was always under the impression that Keith was a fat guy thanks to Neil McNab’s descriptions of him).

Charity Update 13/08/06

2006-08-17T16:44:00.000+01:00

A big thanks to those people who sponsored me on the original fundraising website which helped the Disasters and Emergency Committee assist in the immediate aftermath of the October 2005 Earthquake.
The next and final stage in the project, from my end, is to assist with the regeneration work, specifically looking at educational institutions which would allow children to return to education and allow them the opportunity of a normal childhood. (Photo courtesy of Chris Steele-Perkins/Magnum/Actionaid CSB)

Originally, in my post of 20/04/06, I had considered the idea of building a school from nothing at a cost of £25,000 working with the charity Islamic Relief. However after some serious thought, working with UK charity ActionAid to convert existing buildings in the region into schools was considered to be more appropriate. This is due to the costs involved. Building a school from nothing equals £25,000 compared to the cost of converting an existing building into a school which only costs £1,400.

I will be fundraising for the Child Friendly Schools initiative of ActionAid. These schools cater for kids between the ages of 5 to 10 and provide not only education but support for the child’s emotional needs, to assist them with the trauma they have gone through after losing friends and family in the earthquake. With everybody’s support we will be able to equip 10 schools in the worst effected regions at a total cost of £14,000.

I will provide the exact details on where the schools will be located in a following update. People have began making donations towards the school on the fundraising website: www.justgiving.com/nextgeneration
Your donation will go a long way in securing the future for the children who have suffered one of the world’s greatest natural disasters.

A bit small but when has size mattered

2006-04-28T11:23:00.000+01:00

24/04/06
The indoor slope was good for my technique building. The SnoZone in Milton Keynes allowed me access. So who was my instructor? Daniel Lloyd an investment banker from the city. I didn’t tell him though I didn’t like bankers as I personally feel they can at times exploit the financially illiterate

He was no ordinary banker though, he was a BASI qualified snowboarding instructor!

Daniel stayed calm during my falls and struggles. I thought I was quite good up to the point we began to hit little sections of ice as straight after that my performance went down a crevice and I began committing all the mistakes which were taking place in Chamonix.

---
Description of me going over ice:
Riding reasonably comfortable with my legs bent before the ice section. However as soon as I hit the ice…I hit the ice! Its like something out of a cartoon when the person slips on a banana skin… my whole body straightens and I instantly fall back.

---

There were 2 Main Slopes - 170 M Long with real Snow Surface and a Poma Lift for Each Slope and 1 Nursery Slope.

Not only possessing a funky house and car, Daniel was cool and collective throughout the evening including my close encounter with a pillar and the usual falls which take place. However I would like to see his calm disposition in a number of months time when he is to be a father!

I will be going with Daniel in the next 2 weeks again.

Big thank you to the Xcape for letting us ride for free.

Charity Update 20th April 2006

2006-04-20T01:10:00.000+01:00

!!! IMPORTANT CHANGE!!! New online donation website:http://www.justgiving.com/nextgeneration/Dear All,So far the donations which have been made on the old site:www.justgiving.com/adilhave helped the people in Asia for the emergency situation so you have helped save many lives.

The new site www.justgiving.com/nextgeneration
is the next stage in the project to develop the important institutions which were destroyed. There were many children who died in the earthquake and many schools lost. Your donations will help build a school in the effected region so we can provide hope and education to the next generation.

The cost of the school will be £25,000, I am partnering up with one of the members of the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) to carry forward this project. I have chosen one of their member’s which has the most insight in that region, a charity called Islamic Relief. I have been given an up-to-date account from people on the ground in the area and building the school will be one of the best ways in which we can help.

How you can help?Please Please do make a small donation on http://www.justgiving.com/nextgeneration/ even a donation of £1 will help towards building the School. And please continue sending me your comments and kind words:mailto:twistedkilt@hotmail.com

Day 4 on the slope- Chamonix Training session 2 (April 8th to 11th)

2006-04-12T12:09:00.000+01:00

11/04/2006
Couldn’t move my neck for the first 5 minutes of being awake. Could here everybody busying around to make it for breakfast. Another morning without breakfast I thought. However it was going to actually be a day without any riding as my legs were in just as much pain as my neck. Yes I thought time to come home! Today was supposed to be the final day of riding however I was welcoming the break.

As always without everybody's generosity I wouldn’t have made it to Chamonix:
Easyjet who show boundless enthusiasm for the project and even had it in this month’s in-flight mag (was slightly embarrassed on the plain when the 2 ladies sitting next to me asked me to sign the article!)

ACT for providing my transfer from Geneva airport to Chamonix

My instructor Keith McIntosh for still not losing hope in me (I think)

The Belvedere for providing an excellent stay and friendly environment
And all the people who crossed my path

Training over the next couple of months will take place at the indoor places in the UK

Day 3 on the slope- Chamonix Training session 2 (April 8th to 11th)

2006-04-12T11:44:00.001+01:00

10/04/2006
Legs were in pain before starting which may have been the cause for my worst day on the slope ever. Missed breakfast again, and my foot was wobbling around in the boot for the first run. After having a small bit to eat before starting the second run I felt slightly better. Nevertheless the day didn’t improve much and consisted of some of the hardest falls I’ve had to date. Description of one of them:
I was on my toe edge of the board going at a reasonable speed on the brink of executing a toe to heal turn. I had began the turn however hadn’t notice that my board had began to slide down the fall line as apposed to carving across the slope (even though I think I heard Keith shouting to inform me!). This lead to my heal side of the board catching while I was steering the turn resulting in me going airborne backwards down the slope on the first bounce landing on my arms with my back crashing down, the second bounce was better as I remembered Keith’s advice to cross my arms over my chest so not to break arms and wrists and stuff..However had nowhere to put my head so it crashed down hard.

All I can say is I really can appreciate the valuable training my body received from my years of being really crap at Judo as my body hardened up to being thrown around!

Day 2 on the slope- Chamonix Training session 2 (April 8th to 11th)

2006-04-12T11:44:00.000+01:00

09/04/2006
Feel really crap and sore.  Most of the time I was tumbling down the slope head first.  The snow conditions were very slushy and the off piste stuff was like powder but mixed with water and of a similar consistency of lumpy ice-cream.  Regardless, most of the problems today were from my really bad habit of leaning into the turns.  Towards the last couple hours of the day Keith devised and idea, he would pelt snowballs at me everytime I fell due to leaning.  I could see he was really enjoying this new rule as I think at some subconscious level he actually wanted me to lean so he could have an opportunity to fire snowballs at me.  Truly being fed up of falling and then being bombed by snowballs I decided to get my own back.
I gathered lots of snow and picked up speed as I got close to Keith I called his name so I could hear exactly where he was.  After he spoke I secured target and fired and got him well and good.  However my success was short lived as he seen me happily riding towards a big mound of soft snow and stayed silent as I went crashing into it.

Being stoned the same as being blind?:
Had an interesting chat with someone today who was such a nice guy.  He was trying to relate his experience of being stoned and skiing in a whiteout to my snowboarding blind!

Day 1 on the slope- Chamonix Training session 2 (April 8th to 11th)

2006-04-12T11:37:00.000+01:00

08/04/2006
First morning in Chamonix. Arrived last night after 1am in the bunk house. I was all prepared for the late arrival. Philip one of the owners had provided me with the security code for the door, I was also instructed to look for a note which would have on it a room number. I had the bus driver Martin help me enter the code, we entered it and turned the leaver to the left, for a moment of panic the door didn't open, when Martin turned it the other way...wallla we were in. However there was nobody in sight apart from a nice skier gentleman. We all diligently began looking for the note with no avail. Then arrived Ben one of the guys working at the place. He to didn't no of the note but found me a bed in a room of 4.

Having lived quite a sheltered life I never knew of the norms of a bunkhouse.
1. Should really bring a sleeping bag no bed sheets if you arrive after hours
2. Inevitably being condemned to a top bunk which you need to find in the dark without waking up the other occupants in the room

Apart from me being ill-equipped the place was lovely and clean. The owners were a fantastic bunch of people who took the time out to chat. Hot showers and full kitchen facilities with the option for signing up for breakfast and evening meal made it a wonderful place to stay. However I did slightly miss the wireless internet and the hot tub which was present during my stay at the McNab Chalet the last time I came. The chalet was booked out this time round.

I don't think I have ever made it for breakfast anywhere, so I was very grateful to be offered a yogurt from one of the skiers who was in the same room as me. The day got better as my instructor Keith had a bit too much Champaign the night before while celebrating his wedding anniversary so he sent me a text at about 10 saying he had just got up and would be at mines for noon. I took the opportunity to take it easy and ask as many people as I could where breakfast is with the hope that someone would volunteer to take me to the closest place as I didn't feel adventurous to head out myself and really couldn't be bothered getting lost and wander around more than likely outside the place I would be looking for. As it happened, a friendly Irish girl offered to walked to the cash machine with me and then to deposit me at a lovely café. I had some breakfast and sent a couple of text messages to Keith to see how he was doing. The weather was lovely with the sun shining down, no sign of snow, a nice cold orange juice and lots of relaxation. I suggested that we should might as well have lunch in the cafe, he agreed and we eventually hit the slope at 2pm!

The first run was quite pathetic kept on falling. The remainder runs we took the poma lift up
I felt I was improving on each run. The last 2 runs I fired the board straight down the slope from the top as this was the only way we could pick up enough speed as the snow conditions were slushy and sticky.

Had a near miss with a skier who must have liked my aftershave or something as he got really close and cut in front of me. My lightening reflexes and Keith shouting at the top of his lungs avoided a clash.

---
Formal apology to easyjet, due to the possibility of being arrested by the snowboarding fashion police, I wasn't able to wear the bright orange easyjet hat today, however I will attempt to build up some confidence over the next couple of days
---

What a coincidence:
1. Sat next to the same guy Alex on the plain I had sat next to when I had gone to Geneva the last time
2. Got the same bus driver Martin for the transfer from Geneva to Chamonix, as I had got last time, it was odds of 1 to 30 as there are 30 different drivers.

Taking the High Road in Glenshee

2006-04-12T09:27:00.000+01:00

19/03/06

They say if you can ski/ snowboard in Scotland you can do it anywhere in the world!
This is due to our notorious lack of snow and abundance of wind.  However if conditions are right Scotland is outstanding.  A nice article on Scottish skiing/ snowboarding can be found on the  Snow Sphere website

Had a cool hip instructor called Ali from Oz at the Glenshee ski resort who had only been in Scotland for a couple months.  He was as bad as Keith with regards to his risk tolerance.  Had an obsession with making me attempt some tricks.  Ended up practicing some manuals and ollies with the fruits of my effort manifesting in the knee trembling teeth jittering....very very small jump

---from my limited understanding, a manual consists of a rider bending low and leaning towards the back of the board so the front of the board (the nose) razes off the ground a little.
ollie is taking a manual to the next step buy springing off the back of the board resulting with the whole of the board raising off the ground a little.---

the costs were all covered by the charity Connections for Development they got some footage for their small documentary which was documenting how individuals from the UK are making a difference in the developing world and I got some nice riding done.

Chamonix training session 1 - a big thank you

2006-03-22T12:31:00.000Z

03/03/06 final day
Didn't end up going out as the avalanche risk was too high. Instead, I made good use of the hot tub and began packing my bags.

In the evening we had our final dinner. I also realised that Neil McNab (4 times British snowboarding champion and the owner of the McNab Chalet) had a shaved head and was not, as I mistakenly thought, permanently wearing a white hat!
At the end of the dinner I handed out small business cards to everyone which had information on the sponsored heliboard so that they could spread the word back in their homelands.

I will be returning to Chamonix for further training taking place over 2 long weekends before the end of April.

I would just like to thank all the people who crossed my path during my first training week in Chamonix from 24th February to 4th March 2006.
Especially would like to thank Easy Jet - who paid for the flights
McNab Chalet for providing my accommodation and snowboarding instruction
Keith McIntosh- my instructor who gave me the regular motivational kicks to keep me going and skilfully adapted his training so I could fully benefit.

Chamonix training session 1 - the pinnacle

2006-03-22T12:24:00.000Z

02/03/06 day 6
Reaching the pinnacle of my trip. I was to go to the top of Le Tour.
I was so excited as there was going to be no poma lift. I took a cabin lift followed by a 4-man chairlift which got me to the top of the mountain and the highest I had been so far.

However all the way up I was slightly concerned for 2 reasons:
1) It was very cold and it was a whiteout which meant the visibility was bad.
2) The night before the other people staying in the chalet on hearing my anticipated ride up the cabin and chair lifts decided to share some of the misfortunes of others on similar forms of transportation, which included some guy unfortunately getting killed by catching his head in the automated doors of the cabin.
Nevertheless I made it to the top with my head in tact.

Keith decided that he would hold my hands and take me down the first stretch as it would give me a good feel of the type of slope we were on. I can still remember the first thing he said soon after we began the dissent "Adi I feel a bit like you at this moment as I can't see shit myself" this was due to the white out we were in!

It was important I get experience of snowboarding on powder as this would be the type of snow I would face when I do the helidrop. So we ventured off the main slope time to time and I had my first taste of amazingly soft powder snow which made falling a pleasure however getting up was the antonym, as any attempt of pushing off the snow to stand resulted in digging down to my elbows in soft snow. Once we left the powder things got bad. I hit a section of slope which felt like solid ice. I Unfortunately fell while on this section and slid on my bottom uncontrollably. It felt like being on the world’s biggest slide. I thought I was going to slide all the way down the mountain into the car park. However I manage to cut into the ice with the edge of my snowboard, which slowed me down and the ice patch wasn't in fact very long however as I wasn't able to see how long it was made it quite a scary experience, especially as it was quite steep.

The Crowne Plaza in Leeds had provided me free access to their gym, however it was evident that I hadn't really frequented it, as every 3 minutes I was asking Keith if I could sit down. He finally had lost it with me and said that I should go to the gym more often. As it happened my back was turned towards Keith at the point so I took the opportunity to facetiously say that I couldn't hear him. This was a bad move as Keith responded by shouting at the top of his Scottish lungs "Adi you have legs like a woman!" (obviously he was joking as most snowboarding females have very strong legs).

Chamonix training session 1 - attempting to snowboard

2006-03-22T12:11:00.000Z

01/03/06 day 5
Didn’t break anything yet. Today's slope was beautiful with trees on either side. The trees provided good contrast with the snow, which allowed me to roughly see the direction in which the slope was going.

I went up the poma lift no problem for the first 4 times, the 5th time I was feeling like a pro, I reached out for the pomo all by myself. However my legs just packed in and I had to let go quarter of the way up!

Today was also the day I committed one of the most horrific falls which every snowboarder dreads...I caught an edge!!! It feels a bit like whiplash, not fun.

Soon after another incident occurs, I was on my edge and going across the slope and had picked up some speed. I was waiting for Keith to give me the signal so I could turn on to my other edge and traverse across the other way. However my earpiece went quiet and then I heard someone who did not have the hardcore rugged Scottish tones of Keith, it was a French woman (or possibly Spanish) saying something in her sweet accent but obviously unrelated to my plight! I was getting faster and faster, no Keith, and a French/ Spanish woman in my ear!!! Out of desperation I make the decision to turn. Straight after my turn I hear Keith in my ear calling me a tree hugger as I had just come quite close to the only tree that was in the middle of the slope we were riding on!

28/02/06 day 4
Still not broke anything yet. Eventually was eligible to use the poma lift!!! Yippee!!! However, not too sure why I am so excited as it was quite a painful experience. I fell off and had only travelled about 40 feet up the slope!

26/02/06 & 27/02/06 day 2 & day 3
Didn’t break anything yet, apart from sweat. I'm not yet ready to go up the poma lift so have to resort to a hike up the beginner's' slope every time.
--poma lift is basically a pole, the top end of which is attached to a cable and the bottom has a plastic plate attached to it. You place the plate between your legs and squeeze your thighs and you get pulled up the slope--

Biggest problem when I snowboard is that when I attempt to turn, my board just ends up sliding straight down the fall line as apposed to carving across the slope.
--Fall line is the route a ball would take if dropped on the slope--